My first week in Paris, i was robbed. Some kids in the Metro snatched my wallet out of my backpack. The usual suspects in my wallet were all gone: my ID, my drivers licence, my bank cards, some cash. I was devastated and a fearful thought crept up in my head: “is this it? Should i just pack my bags again and go home?”
And you know how people sometimes say “it was not meant to be…” With that attitude, i would have maybe gone straight back to Germany.
I don’t really believe in that “it-was-not-meant-to-be-thing”. Obstacles are challenges and opportunities for us to decide – is this what i really want…
And if yes, we have to do something about it. And if you don’t do something about it, it means, this is maybe not what you want right now-or maybe you are not quite ready for it yet. And that’s fine too. Sometimes it takes time to be ready for a challenge, and sometimes we don’t really want something or somebody that much.
But there is no “it wasn’t meant to be”. It is about taking responsibility for your life and being active and fight for the things that are important to you – or, passing that responsibility into the hands of this invisible person called fate or whatever you wanna call it. And sometimes, fighting for what you want, can also mean, asking for help.
Luckily, there was another thought in my head: “no way! I will not let some rascals ruin my dream of living in Paris!” So i stayed. But i had to make a phone call to my dad to ask him for some money, to be able to stay in the Hostel for a few days, until i would find a job.
My parents were not overly impressed with my Extravaganzas back then, but if i was stuck in the mud, i could be sure, they would always be there for me.
The Hostel-Life was great. There was a whole bunch of people from all over the world, and at some stage we stopped calling us by our names, we would just refer to each other by our countries or cities of origin. So there was Ireland, England and Italy and so on, and i was Germany. We played a lot of table soccer.
Austria worked behind the desk at the Hostel and we became good friends. After i was robbed, he arranged for me to stay a few nights for free, until my parents’ money would arrive. I visited some touristy spots around Paris: Versaille, the Louvre, The Eiffeltower, Sacre-Coeur…
And i started looking for jobs in the papers. I also got back into drawing stuff…
